How to Stuff the Knicks' Long Game

The Bulls' objective was to limit the Knicks' three-point game and put increased pressure on point guard Raymond Felton (above left).
Reuters

The Knicks are well aware that if something isn't broken, you don't fix it. The saying might as well be their motto when it comes to shooting three-pointers this season.

But while the team's bread-and-butter strategy may not be broken, there are emerging signs that it might need some fixing—at least when the Knicks play elite defenses, like the one they ran into Saturday in Chicago.

The Bulls' plan to limit the Knicks' attempts from three-point range will almost certainly serve as a blueprint for other defense-minded opponents. The red-hot Knicks' offense—which scored 100 and 112 points on 41 and 44 three-point attempts in their two games before Saturday's—came to a grinding halt Saturday because there simply weren't many outside looks. Chicago's guards blanketed the league's top three-point shooting team, Steve Novak in particular, and its post defenders were physical with Tyson Chandler, making it so he couldn't cleanly receive passes while coming off the pick and roll.

That put added pressure on Knicks point guard Raymond Felton, who in turn made just nine of his career-high 30 attempts. That was exactly what the Bulls had hoped for. "Our whole thing was that we wanted to make Felton beat us," Chicago center Joakim Noah said.

The Knicks were missing key injured players against Chicago, and Knicks coach Mike Woodson dismissed the notion that the team struggles when it doesn't get open three-point looks. "When you've got a guy by the name of Carmelo [Anthony] and Amar'e [Stoudemire], these guys can do other things," he said. "You [reporters] got to watch us a little closer."

Here's the catch: A premier scorer like Anthony would have helped against the Bulls' stifling defense, but to suggest that his presence alone would have somehow solved the team's offensive problems may be missing the point.

Take, for example, the Knicks' Nov. 26 game in Brooklyn, which in many ways was almost identical to the loss in Chicago. Against the Nets—who have allowed the fewest three-pointers in the NBA—Felton shot an abysmal 3-for-19, while the Knicks made just six of their 21 attempts from behind the arc. The Knicks lost that game despite Anthony going off for 35 points.

The Knicks' loss in Memphis on Nov. 16 bore similarities, too. The Grizzlies—who have allowed the third-fewest long-range attempts in the league—gave up just five threes in 19 tries. By comparison, the Knicks made just eight of their 21 three-point attempts (38%) against Chicago, which boasts the second-stingiest three-point defense.

The loss this weekend meant the Knicks, on pace to break the league's record for three-point attempts in a season, fell to 2-3 this season when attempting 23 shots or fewer from behind the arc.

Knicks point guard Jason Kidd even acknowledged afterward that upcoming opponents would try to emulate the Bulls' strategy. "The whole game, we just couldn't get open on offense," he said. "They didn't want us to shoot the three tonight."

When that is the case, and defenses pack the paint while surrounding the perimeter like Chicago did, the midrange game becomes vital. But for how well the Knicks have shot the ball this season, they haven't been strong at all from that part of the court. According to the website Hoopdata, the Knicks are shooting just 37% from 10-15 feet this season, which ranks 20th in the NBA. The league average is 40%. By contrast, the Knicks shoot better than 40% from three-point land.

Felton, who said he hadn't taken 30 shots since his high-school days, took the heat for the Bulls loss and said it wasn't a matter of how many shots he took. Instead, he said, he has to make more of his midrange attempts when defenses focus so heavily on his teammates.

"Do I want to take that many shots? No. I'm a point guard," Felton said. "But I've got to take them, because they were giving them to me."

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